Cycling is popular as a leisure and exercise activity, and as a means of travelling short and medium distances. A typical bicycle, as is well known, comprises a frame supporting a seat for the rider, mounted on front and rear wheels one of which is driven by a pair of pedals disposed generally within reach of the rider from the seat. The front wheel is rotatably mounted within the frame and a steering mechanism, typically a handlebar, is rotationally fixed to the front wheel, allowing the rider to turn, and to maintain balance while riding.
Because it has only two wheels a bicycle is vertically stable in the direction of travel, i.e. along a line between the two-point contact of the wheels to the ground, but unstable in a lateral direction perpendicular to the direction of travel. The rider maintains balance when in motion by constantly steering toward the center of gravity, to compensate for the lateral instability of the bicycle. In essence, when riding a bicycle the rider is always falling toward one side or the other, but stays upright by steering the bicycle toward the direction that the rider is falling at any particular moment. With a skilled rider this corrective process is imperceptible, but without this constant correction the bicycle would invariably fall over to one side. By itself the bicycle is incapable of maintaining lateral balance because it has only two-point contact with the ground.
Accordingly, a bicycle is not a feasible means of carrying children or goods unless a cyclist is actually riding it. If a cyclist is using a bicycle as a means of travelling with a child to a destination where the bicycle cannot used, for example to a supermarket to shop for groceries, once at the destination the bicycle becomes an impediment. It has to either be locked and left unattended, which risks theft and leaves the user without a means of carrying the goods or child, or ‘walked’ about the destination, which is awkward at best and not even an option in places such as many commercial premises where bicycles are not allowed.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a bicycle that is capable of being converted between a bicycle mode and a stroller mode. The user can walk with a child and/or goods in the stroller mode, for example out of an apartment down to the street, convert the stroller to a bicycle and cycle to the destination with the child and/or goods in the carrier, and then at the destination covert the bicycle back to the stroller mode and enter the supermarket to shop for groceries with the bicycle in the stroller mode. The bicycle need never be left unattended, and in both the bicycle mode and the stroller mode provides a convenient way to carry goods and/or a child, while allowing the bicycle to be used as an environmentally friendly and efficient means of travelling to and from the destination.